Naked
by Tiani Lunaris
Summary: I am naked. I have nothing left. My bones are picked clean and riddled with regrets. I am naked. But I will never breake..."


Naked

Severus Snape just had to laugh. 

Though the situation was more than serious enough to make anyone go pale of fright, he just had to laugh. There was nothing else to do.

He had walked in to the Death Eater meeting with an impending feeling of doom in his wake. The fact that his students felt the same thing when ever they saw him had very little to do with the fact that for one seldom time the Potions Master of Hogwarts was very, very afraid. 

Though it never had been uttered in words in any way, he knew he was revealed as a spy. His fear had come true. 

One way or the other they had found a way to enter his mind at one point or another, and pulled it from his mind. He knew because he saw it in his dream. How he had fought to keep his knowledge hidden… he could still remember waking up with a start. Body trembling and covered with a thick layer of sweat that made his sheets cling like a strait jacket, yet he himself was colder than what his dungeons chambers ever could have made him. His breathing had been ragged as if he had been running for miles non stop, and his heart was pounding like mad. He didn't remember too much of the dream itself, but he knew what it had been about. Him loosing an essential part of his memory, only to get it back, copied, signed and stamped by the Voldemort Death Eater Inc. nicely followed by a post-it note saying, "Thank you for your participation, we'll be sure of making good use of this info in a very near future." 

He kept his face impassive underneath the mask, and he kept his back straight and proud. Others who didn't know about the revelation of his treason thought him to walk with his head held high out of pride of being in the Dark Lords circle. Little did they know so far how wrong they were, and the reason for his pride was the notion of leaving this life with honour, and out of pride over serving the old man he admired so. 

He knew from the start of that he would die for the old man, but a part of him thought it to be too soon. Where was the wife and children he was supposed to leave behind!? Where were the good friends and family who would mourn for him!? He knew he had wasted every chance he had gotten so far, and now it was too late. The students of Hogwarts wouldn't be heart broken by his abrupt leave. Well, with the exception of some odd cases which he seriously didn't want to dwell on. Not that he cared too much of that fact. 

But his heart ached at the thought of his fellow Phoenix members. Well those who he had gotten somewhat close to anyway. And most of all, he felt sorry for Albus… He had seen how hard he had taken the parting of Sirius Black. Hell! He himself had thought it to be sad as his old nemesis just disappeared. Who would he fight with now!? Nobody. And that was probably it. There was very few who were left who shared the same past as him. It was almost as if his group of acquaintances were cursed in some way. They were all dead or lived some half life as outcasts of society. He had known some of that during the period where he had been accused to be a Death Eater himself. 

Hiding a sigh, and holding the slight falter of step and sagging of his posture a bay, he realised that what ever past he would have had with Black, Potter, Pettigrew, or Lupin was of no value. He was going to die, whether he wanted it or not, he was going to die. The only thing he hoped for was it wouldn't be by a Dementors kiss. Although he couldn't keep his body in the afterlife, he was rather fond of his soul thank you. 

Had walked in to the glen, saw the rest of the assembled party, and walked smoothly to his regular spot. Looking around he saw the same blank faces as he had seen for such a long time. Sure he didn't see the faces themselves, but he knew who they were. Some had been freed from a hellish incarceration at Azkaban; others had been in hiding in society blaming the Imperius. The rest had been in hiding living like animals. Everyone but him… he had lived out in the open, protected by Dumbledore, safe in his position as a Potions master, yet, ironically enough, he risked his life every day by being a spy for those he cared about.

Voldemort began talking, and like a person knowing what to expect Severus took very little heed in the rally. Instead he noticed all the little things he never had felt or seen on a regular basis. He heard how his heartbeats made his ears whisper, how his body felt, how his clothes clung to his tall shape. He noticed the wind caress the minute pieces of skin exposed, and flexing his muscles he felt a strength he'd never felt before. 

He felt the earth beneath his feet and longed to remove the shoes to feel the play of the grass to his bare soles, and to feel the faint heat from deep, deep beneath the earths crust, and hopefully feel the pulsating energy of Gaia, lulling the course of nature with its eternal heartbeats. 

Drawing a deep breath slowly, he felt the sweetness of the fresh air, and how his lungs filled with the clean gas, and marvelled over the feeling of it entering his every cell more precise than any potion he could brew. 

Then his eyes snapped open. There was something odd with this glen. The air had a tinge of old raw magic, and the trees seemed more alive than before. He looked closer at an old oak straight across him. The trunk was twice his size, and must have been over ten feet thick. It probably would have been cut down a long time ago hadn't it been for the huge crack stretching from the very roots almost up to the top, and looked like it was big enough for a large man to hide inside.

Blinking he tried not to do a double take. Was it only him or did the braches move more than what they should have in the weak breeze. Wait! Didn't they just slow their movement down to half its speed? 

He was so caught up with the surroundings that he only heard the words "And traitors are punished with death…" to brace himself for what was to come.

He saw the wand being raised as in slow motion, and now he understood why he had felt all those things, and what his body was for. Straining his leg muscles to the extreme he ran towards the Dark Lord, and half way he took a tiger leap, hands out in front of him like claws, and mouth open as he was a huge feline himself. He even felt the tips of his fingers growing to nine inch long talons, he felt his mouth growing ever so slightly to give room for the, to him, growing fangs. Little did he know it was just what the rest saw, and that the look of fear on Voldemorts face was pure. But the curse hit as Severus was less than a meter away, and sent the Potions master flying back. 

It seemed like the Dark Lord wouldn't spend his energy on the Avada Kedavra curse on traitors so soon, but to make them go in pain, especially those with insolence enough to try attacking him. Snape, however, was already ready for the Cruacious and fought it best he could. It didn't help long though. Convulsing on the ground his senses now noticed the immense pain his every nerve ending told him was coursing through his body. He felt the sweet air being deprived from his lungs which were fighting franticly to maintain functional and to sustain the body with the vital gas. He felt his heart pound as the adrenaline glands let out a larger dose than what the heart was used to, and he felt with a fading consciousness how his entire body was now fighting on an engine of its own to survive. 

And in all that Severus Snape had to laugh. He had been exposed to the outmost extreme point but being clad naked, and he truly felt there was nothing they could do. Kill him if they want. Beat him to a pulp with their bare fists, be his guest. He was a man living on borrowed time, and he knew it. Nothing could change that little slice, and he couldn't care less. It was just laughable, and he did. He laughed a long deep hollow laughter, scarred with pain and oxygen depravation, and then he passed out failing to notice the open wound of the old oak widen. He never saw the eerie green light which began pouring out through the man sized opening, and he missed out on the Dryad coming out like an apparation from a fairytale. In a slightly dreamlike state he heard the panicked screams and disapparation pops of the others as the trees began lashing out on them with flexible thin branches, making the Whomping Willow look domesticated, and cutting those who were too slow to get away. He never noticed the big almond shaped blood red eyes looking down at him from a heart shaped face coloured of living spring wood, crowned with moss green tousled hair. He was long gone from the land of consciousness as the naked female entity lifted him up as easily as if he would have done to a kitten, and carry him in to the tree. Nobody but the trees saw the Dryad closest to a queen carry him inside her old body and close up the wound leaving things as if nothing had ever happened. Only sign was the now unblemished trunk of a very old tree…

To be continued…

AN:

This was a very little thing I made on the morning of January 17. 2004, while waiting to go to work. I shouldn't be up now at 0830 am, having this hangover, having only three hours of sleep, and well… God… I'm totally fucked up. I tried to write this last bit only finding myself loosing the train of thought… 

Man. I really hope there will be lots of costumers today, otherwise I'll fall asleep. 

Have fun. You lucky, lucky bastards... Enjoy the time you get to sleep. 

Hmm... I'm rambling aren't I?

Better stop now before it gets all fucked up for real, eyh?

Read and review as I love doing the same to you.

(a very tired) Tiani Lunaris

Additional note on the ramblings:

Well… I can with pleasure say that I am now awake, well, more than before any way, and felt I should probably tell a bit of the story behind this fic. 

Well here it comes.

I haven't got the slightest clue… 0_0

Honest to the Ancient's. I haven't got a clue what went on in my head at eight thirty am in the morning, having a serious hangover, listening to the Assemblage 23 song Naked. The only thing I CAN say is I did see that scene where Snape laughed during the torture. The bit about him having some other ability than being a wizard and the incredibly intriguing potions master he has turned out to be, was added now (somewhere around four in the morning, and yes I have slept. I slept from the time I got home from work to eleven. Which was somewhere around four hours. Hey It's more than three!!! Going back to sleep after finishing this though).

Where was I??? Oh yeah.. Don't really know why I added that supernatural bit. Wish I could say it was due to watching Underworld on the theatres, but alas. They stopped showing it when I finally got money. Bummer eyh. But think it was a direct cause to all those lovely, nice, bondage-y Manga hunks I've made… Ehm… Sorry about that. *wipes away some saliva from the corner of the mouth *

Not going to remove it though. *grins * 

Ok. I can take a hint. (or can I…?) And I am going to sleep. 

Commander Tiani Lunaris, logs out. Star date 01.18.04. Home world time 0339

Over and out *kshhhhhhh *


End file.
